Board of Directors
Malory Beazley | Representative - Halifax Sexual Health Centre |
Erin MacDonald | Representative - Cape Breton Centre for Sexual Health |
Sheila Martin | Representative - Sheet Harbour Sexual Health Centre |
Lisa Johnson | Representative - Sexual Health Centre for Cumberland County |
Erin Carr | Representative - South Shore Sexual Health |
Emma Van Rooyen | Co-Chair |
Jenny Rand | Co-Chair |
Bryah Boutilier | Secretary |
Sara Brushett | Treasurer |
Jaiden Decaire | Treasurer-in-training |
Kathy McKay | Member-at-Large |
Claire Horn | Member-at-Large |
Natalie Green | Member-at-Large |
Amanda Kolwich | Member-at-Large |
Ty Silver | Member-at-Large |
Staff
Stella Samuels (they/them) – Executive Director
As Executive Director Stella supports the sexual health centres in managing their collaborative projects. They are also the provincial spokesperson for SHNS.
Stella has a passion for social justice, sexual health, and finding innovative ways to be, work, and play together in communities. They have taken a winding career path that includes entrepreneurship, nonprofit work, municipal governance, academia, and book publishing…sometimes in tandem. They bring with them a diverse set of expertise in non-profit leadership, systems change, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
Kelsey Benoit (she/they) – Project Coordinator SUGAR Health
Kelsey Benoit is a queer settler living in Mi’kma’ki who holds a Bachelor of Social Work from Lakehead University. They care about working in anti-oppressive spaces that value diverse experiences and inclusivity.
Kelsey is passionate about harm reduction and uses this approach to inform their work. She has spent years working alongside, learning from, and advocating for the rights of people who use drugs. Due to her experience working in and with Indigenous communities and community members, Kelsey strives to work from a lens which is increasingly anti-colonial and informed by Indigenous knowledges.
Kelsey’s educational and work experience has involved destigmatizing healthcare, sexual health and 2SLGBTQIA+ education initiatives, community organizing and advocacy, as well as system navigation and case management.
Wren Tian (they/them) – Transformation Closet Coordinator
Wren Tian (they/them) is a trans (procrastinating) artist and facilitator based in Kjipuktuk aka so-called Halifax. They are passionate about conversations around sexual health, pleasure, identity, and belonging and the ways that these things intersect. They are particularly interested in kink culture for its ongoing histories as it relates to queer resistance, collective care, harm reduction, and the playful ways it allows for messing with power structures, especially as a person of colour. Through collaborative modes of working, Wren seeks to carve out little spaces of joy for QTBIPOC community. When they aren’t slinging toys at Venus Envy you can catch them wandering the woods with their dog and dreaming with their chosen family.